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Nicaraguan diplomat found dead in N.Y.

Police say official found with his throat slit in his New York apartment was expected at the UN General Assembly.

Police investigate the scene where Nicaraguan diplomat, Cesar Mercado, 34, was found dead with his throat slashed in his New York apartment by his driver, who was picking him up Thursday for the UN General Assembly's annual meeting. (Sept. 23, 2010)
(David Goldman / AP)

By Colleen LongAssociated Press

Thu., Sept. 23, 2010

NEW YORK, N.Y.—A Nicaraguan diplomat was found dead Thursday with his throat slashed in his blood-spattered apartment and a knife by his side, hours before he was to attend the United Nations General Assembly’s annual meeting, officials said.

Cesar Mercado, 34, who had worked at the Nicaraguan consulate as acting consul general, was found at 10:35 a.m. in his apartment in the Bronx by the driver who came to pick him up to attend the meeting, police said.

The driver found the door ajar and Mercado’s body lying just inside, police said.

“The knife was found on the floor next to him,” said Paul Browne, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for public information.

Police were investigating and no suspects were immediately identified. Investigators were looking into Mercado’s recent contacts, his relationships and where he had been during the days leading up to the slaying. A motive remained unclear.

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“He had no enemies. He was loved by everyone who knew him,” a friend, Amparo Amador, said in Spanish. “When I first heard of his death, I thought he must’ve died from natural causes because there would be no way he could be killed.”

Mercado came to the U.S. in 2001 to work as an assistant in the office of Nicaragua’s ambassador to the United Nations, a friend said. He was single and his family was in Nicaragua.

He eventually took on the duties of consul general, working with passports and immigration visas.

Amador said he was like a son to her. Recently, she’d urged him to go to the doctor because he looked thin, and he was diagnosed with diabetes. The two danced at a wedding of another friend in Brooklyn last week, she said.

“He was the perfect guy. The best person, just wonderful,” she said. “I feel as if one of my children has died.”

Leaders from 192 nations were in town for the General Assembly, including Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who is a fierce critic of the United States and a defender of North Korea and Iran. President Barack Obama addressed the General Assembly on Thursday.

Nicaraguan Vice-President Jaime Morales said U.S. Ambassador Robert Callahan assured him that the FBI would do everything possible to investigate.

The assistant to the ambassador said the Nicaraguan mission in New York couldn’t immediately release any information.

Mercado lived on the top floor of a six-storey apartment building in a working-class section of the Bronx. Police barred reporters from entering the building Thursday. Residents said they didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary Wednesday night, but some said it’s often noisy in the building at night.

Mexican Consul Ruben Beltran, a leader of the Association of Latin American Consuls, said the organization will ask authorities for a prompt investigation.

“The Latin American community in New York has lost an active consul, who will be missed by his friends, colleagues and countrymen,” the association said in a statement.

Beltran said he remembered Mercado’s solidarity.

“There is concern among the community of Latin American consuls,” he said. “He was an active colleague; he always came to the important events. He was a generous, friendly, straightforward person, a good colleague.”

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